(Poilurmbt m[fls\t Published by the Forest History Association of British Colurnbia No. Twenty-nine Victoria, British Colurnbia September l-991 THE ANDERSONFAMTLY AND THE ALBERNI VALLEY by Jan Peterson Port Alberni may have a Spanish name but the establishment of the community is credited to the English. The original purchase of 12,000 acres of land in the Alberni Valley was to give the fanily firm of James Thompson and Co. of London, England a reliable source of timber and spars for their clipper ships. In L855 Capt. Edward Stamp from Alnwick, Northumberland, England, arrived on the Pacific Coast to purchase lumber and spars on Puget Sound, where several nills were prospering from the California gold rush. After sailing the coast of Vancouver Island, Stamp was impressed by the great forests. He returned to London where he convinced two shipping companies, Thomas Bilbe & Company and James Thompson & Company, to back him in construction of a sawmill here. The Thornas Bilbe Co. had built rnany of the clipper ships run by the Thompsons. The Thompson company was owned by James G.S. Anderson and his brother in partnership with their cousins. The Anderson Company would become one of the great shipping fanilies of England, with major interest in the Pacific and orient Stearnship Company. r-r\ nvYr \6C, IOO% Recycled Poper 2- The compani-es agreed partly because they also built ships and feared the irnpending civil war in the United States would cut off their supplies of southern pine. In 1-859 Starnp wrote to British Columbia Governor James DougJ-as expressing his desire to establish a first-class sawmill in the Colony of Vancouver Island. He also hinted that the prospects at Puget Sound looked favourable. Douglas was anxious to see such a promising industry establ-ished in the Colony, but he had no authority from London to take over the management of Colonial lands. In spite of this, he and Stamp managed to come to an agreement. Douglas' decision was probably helped by the fact that Stamp's backers were respected and wealthy merchants in EngJ-and. Douglas guaranteed that Stamp woul-d not have to pay for his own irnprovements, if and when these lands were placed on the market, and that the sale price would not exceed one pound per acre. Stamp agreed to make rrpermanent improvementsrr to the property before the end of 1860. The English company received land qrants in the Albernj- Valley of 1-,750 acres for a townsite,250 acres for farmland, and 15r000 acres of timber reserve. The site chosen for the sawmil1 was described by Gilbert Malcolm Sproat in his bookrrScenes and Studies of Savage Life:rl rrlt was an encampment of the Tseshaht Indian band near a pretty poi-nt at one side of the bay where there was a beach shaded by young trees. rt The following year, oD June 29, L860, the schooner Meg Merrilies landed ni-ne workmen at the head of the Alberni Inlet. Next came the schooner Woodpecker with workmen and machinery for the new mil1. Capta j-n Stamp arrived on Septernber 1st aboard the Meg Merrilies skippered by Tom Tamphlet and Jeremiah (Jerry) Rogers, a New Brunswick logger. AIso accompanying them was Gilbert Malcolm Sproat, a representative for Thompson & Company in London, Enqland. Sproat, from Scotland, was only 26 years old when he was sent to keep an eye on the shipbuilding company's interests. The Anderson mill- at Al-berni had several advantages over similar mills in Puget Sound. One was its accessibility, being situated on the outside coast of the isl-and, dllowing navigators to avoid delays in journeying in and out of the Straits of Juan de Fuca and Admiralty Inlet, which sometimes took a week. Another big consideration was the remoteness; there would be littLe opportunity for men to desert their ship at Alberni. There was no road access to the east coast of the island. AIso there were no port charges and it was a port of entry, dllowing vessels to sail directly to the mil1. 3- A sma1l community with a population of approximately 200 was established surrounding the sawmill-. To supply fresh vegetables Stamp put in a farm on the far side of the Somass River on the flatland at the river/s mouth. This was named the Anderson Farm, and is now the Somass Dairy Farm. For a few years everything went well-, the harbour was a busy place with schooners arriving to load carqo for the United States, England, China, Manila, Australia and other world ports. By 1-864 aI] the suitable trees on the tj-nber reserve had been harvested. Lack of mechanj-zation in the industry made all timber not adjacent to bodies of water inaccessible for commercial purposes. There was an attempt to get more logs from Sproat Lake by rnaking a dam at the outlet of the l-ake, which enabled them to be fl-oated down the river to the miI1. Sproat suggested Stamp had made an error in choosing Alberni as the location instead of Puget Sound. Eventually the site was abandoned. The empty nill and other buildings stood derel-ict for a number of years. However, the land granted by Douglas for the settlement remained in the possession of the Andersons in England. On September 4, 1879 news reached Victoria that the nill buildings had been destroyed by fire. ey mid-f883, settlers began arriving in the Alberni Valley. They came by canoe up the Alberni Inlet and on foot over the Horne Lake trail. Many came from Great Britain; others from eastern Canada, some even from Austral-ia. In 1886 the Anderson Company decided it was time to make an effort to develop the land it owned in the Alberni Valley. With this in rnj-nd, James George Anderson, representing Anderson Anderson & Co. and Capt. George Slader, who represented Bilbe's trustees, came to Alberni to see what could be done. It was decided to lay out a smalL townsite. This became what is commonly called the Otd Townsite of Alberni. From time to time lots were sold. Others were donated for churches, schools and other public buildings. When New Alberni began to grow, another townsite was developed to the south. It was never the intention of the company to develop two towns. on the way home from a visit to Australia, AIan G. Anderson visited Alberni and found rr...utter stagnation in the matter of settl-ement and demand for land in the Alberni District. " He recommended that in order to simplify matters in connection with the sale or lease of lots, ot making agreements, the varj-ous peopJ-e who owned the property shoul,d form themselves into a Iimited company. This was done and registered in the name of the Al-berni Land Company on May 12, 1905. Herbert Carmichael became the agent for the new company. 4- In I9O7 the company concluded arrangements with the Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway Co. (CPR) by which it would agree to extend the rail line to Alberni in consideration of recej-ving an allotment of one-fourth of the land (then consi-sting of about 2tsOO acres) for raiLway development. When Hugh Kerr Anderson vj-sited in 191-0, one-haIf of the property, incl-uding the railway portion, had been disposed of. By this time residents of New Alberni were becoming more vocal in their dernands. They wanted more lots on the market, a bridge over CoaI Creek, a lighting system, streets upqraded, a local post office and a hospital-. Alberni too had its own demands the same things, ds wel-I as the railway station, Iand set aside for recreational purposes and free l-and to encourage industries to l-ocate there. Anderson tried to appease both sides but the decisions had to be made in London. Sir Kenneth S. Anderson visited again j-n L9I2. By this tirne the railway had arrived and land sales were booming. But when there was talk in both communities of becoming a munj-cipality, Anderson tried to discourage it knowing ful1 well- the implications this would have on his company through taxation. The communities went ahead anyway. Port Alberni became a municipality in 1-91-2, Al-berni in 19L3. The Great War intervened and soured real estate development. While the community went through a major depression j-n l-91-5, the company felt the pinch at taxatj-on time. Ultimately it was taxation that kj-I1-ed the Anderson Company's involvement here. Unable to meet the taxes on undeveloped land in both communities, it was forced into raising debentures to provide funds to prevent the land from being forfeited. But the absence of purchasers for the land continued and the company had to reconcile j-tself to losing its title to the property. The Anderson Farm was eventually sold in 1925. The company wound up in 1930, leaving many of the sel-ected lots abandoned. In the end, speaking of his company's involvement in Alberni's history, Colin S. Anderson said rrlt is a sad, declining end to a Iong associatj-on, but what had started as an imaginatj-ve enterprise had with time become a real burden. I' The Anderson Company may have no association with the community we know today but it will al-ways have a place in our history. Land for West Coast General Hospital, several city ha1ls, numerous churches and schoo1s, Recreation Park, Roger Creek Park was a1l given freely to the communj-ty by the British company.